Definition

Coastal waters are used for a variety of purposes such as food production, hydroelectricity generation, recreational activities, as a transport medium, and as a repository for sewage and industrial waste. For some of these purposes, primarily, food production and recreational activities, the quality of the water is vitally important. The water environment and associated habitats such as coral reefs and beaches may offer significant financial benefit to the associated communities and these opportunities provide the motivating factors for creating a management program.

Water, however clean, is an alien environment to man and thus it can pose hazards to human health even when it is of pristine quality. It is therefore necessary to implement and enforce effective management policies in order to minimize and reduce the health consequences of all anthropogenic activities related to water use. In addition to human health implications of poor water quality, anthropogenic risk...

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WHO (2000) Environmental health indicators: development of a methodology for the WHO European Region. Interim report, 6 November 2000. World Health Organization Regional Office for Europe, BilthovenGoogle Scholar